I. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to computer adaptive testing. More specifically, but not exclusively, the present disclosure relate to methods for improving ability estimation accuracy and item selection efficiency in a Computer Adaptive Test (CAT).
II. Description of the Prior Art
In educational assessments, a test battery is usually composed of several related sections based on content categories. The inter-relationships among different sections can be used to improve the test efficiency in a Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) scenario.
Therefore, a primary object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure uses an examinee's ability estimate from an earlier section to inform the selection of the initial item and the subsequent items in a later section.
To date, a number of studies have been conducted on selecting the initial item based on an examinee's scores from earlier related tests using a variety of methods. However, none of the methods used in these studies have provided satisfactory results. Furthermore, using prior ability estimates to drive the starting point for a subsequent test section has not been widely used and practiced.
Therefore, it is another object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure to provide a method for using the ability estimates from a previous test or test section(s) as prior information to inform the selection of the initial item of a subsequent test or section of a test.
Another object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure is to improve methods for item selection and ability estimation in a CAT for accurately measuring an examinee's ability.
A still further object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure is to provide methods for initial item selection based on ability estimates from a previous section.
One or more of these and/or other objects, features or advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the specification and claims that follow.